Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
Rally By Workers,
Antiwar Activists and Students to Defend the Oakland 25
By HOWARD
KEYLOR
(ILWU Local 10 Retired)
On November 7, nearly 200 people rallied in front of the California
Superior Court in downtown Oakland.
The rally was called to demand that the charges be dropped against the 24
antiwar protesters and longshore union official Jack Heyman and for the
right to protest in the port. The 25 defendants, known as the Oakland 25,
were arrested after police, without provocation, attacked antiwar
protesters and longshoremen in the port on April 7. The New York Times has
called this demonstration the most violent confrontation in the U.S.
during the Iraq war. In fact, most of the demonstrators and longshoremen,
who work at the terminals that were being picketed by the antiwar
protesters, were shot in the back, indicating that they were fleeing the
riot police not confronting them. Film footage of the major TV stations
documents this chilling fact.
The rally was fired up by angry ILWU Local 10 Business Agent Trent Willis
who said as a black man driving his car in Oakland, he's more terrified of
the police than of any criminal. And the union's former
Secretary-Treasurer Clarence Thomas, just returned from a labor delegation
tour of U.S.-occupied Iraq, chastised the police for making Oakland look
like Baghdad. Local 10 Business Agent Jack Heyman, one of the defendants,
characterized the attack by the police, not as a "riot" but as
an assault planned at a secret, prior meeting between maritime employers,
members of the Port Commission and the Oakland Police Department (OPD). A
representative of one of the picketed maritime companies, American
President Lines, admitted that such a meeting had taken place.
Speaking also were the lawyers Jim Chanin and John Burris who had
successfully sued the OPD for millions of dollars in the notorious
"Riders" case in which the judge ordered the cops to refrain
from further racist behavior directed against blacks. They underscored
that the police continue their brutal attacks despite any court order.
ACLU's Mark Schlossberg also spoke to the need to control the police.
Others spoke from the workers, antiwar and student movements. Mike Smith,
one of the Berkeley 3 victimized by the UC Berkeley administration for
organizing antiwar protests on campus, called for the unity of workers and
students in fighting this war and oppression.
The courtroom was filled to an overflow crowd of supporters. While the
judge had earlier ordered the charge of "disturbing the peace"
to be dismissed as being too general, he did allow the District Attorney's
office to add a new charge of "creating a public nuisance". One
of the defense lawyers, Bobby Stein, correctly and vociferously objected
to that additional charge as being vindictive. Some of the charges
remaining against the defendants are: "disrupting a business",
"failure to obey a police officer", "resisting arrest"
and "trespassing on private (i.e. port) property".
There is nothing in the charges about "disrupting the war
machine" or the protesters chanting, "This war is for profit,
workers can stop it". That would be too blatant an attack on free
speech.
The key courtroom fight took place over the DA's office continued refusal
to comply with the judge's order to turn over to the defense documents and
police records which will show that the Oakland 25 are innocent and that
once again it is the Oakland police who are guilty of an unprovoked
attack; this time on demonstrators expressing their First Amendment rights
and longshoremen observing the picketing. The courtroom charade will
continue on January 9, 2004, the date for the next pre-trial hearing.
Clearly, the scales of justice are tilted toward those with wealth, the
international corporations who profited from the Iraq war. As the ILWU
learned long ago, defense of democratic and trade union rights will be won
by mobilizing on the streets and on the docks not in the courtroom.
For up-to-date information on the defense campaign, log on to www.defendilwuba.com